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'The best books, reviewed with insight and charm, but without compromise.' - author Jackie French

Saturday, 3 December 2016

Review: The AMAZING True Story of How Babies Are Made

I was genuinely excited to see a book on this topic that wasn't published in 1988, and this one lives up the the title as being truly amazing! While Where Did I Come From? has been an excellent go to resource for the past 27 years (!!!), it is a little outdated, and I'm not just talking about the illustration style.

While you may ask how a book on the subject of how babies are made can be outdated (well, I mean, we have, as a species, been successfully making babies for many centuries now!), there actually are some things that have changed. The Amazing True Story of How Babies Are Made has a section that discusses IVF conception (both the need for it and the process), and also discusses the concepts of egg and sperm donation.
The book covers all the important elements, in simple and frank language with all the correct terminology and includes discussing the differences between boys and girls, puberty, sex, fertilisation (including twins/multiples and IVF), month by month growth of the baby in Mum's tummy, and of course birth (both natural and caesarean).

Though offering a wonderfully inclusive look at the different ways a baby can be made and born, there is no mention of surrogacy (though the way the discussion of egg/sperm donation is illustrated could easily act as an introduction to the topic of surrogacy) and while there is mention of bottle feeding in the 'Feeding the Baby' section, there are no illustrations to reinforce this as a common feeding option alongside breast feeding.

Overall, this book offers a really great place for floundering parents to start, it is a fantastic resource for when little ones start asking the more difficult questions or for when the older ones want more in-depth detail. I very recently read this with my own five year old who found it absolutely fascinating, it was the book of choice for a week running!